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In the wake of recent political debates, political zeal is
increasing in our nation. Rhetoric is intensifying from the camps of competing
candidates. The pressure is on to identify oneself with this one or that one,
or to align against this other one. On social media, one’s stance on a
particular candidate has the potential to alienate some and infuriate others.
But when we reach the end of our lives, it ultimately will not matter one iota
which candidates we liked and which ones we didn’t, or which ones we voted for
or against. And as important as the issues at stake are for our nation, at this
point in the process, remaining undecided is still a viable option. But there
are matters on which it is impossible to be indifferent or undecided. We may
have to withhold judgment for now on which Republican or Democratic candidate
would be the best leader for our nation, but when it comes to what we shall do
with Jesus Christ in our lives, the decision must be made. It cannot be
ignored, put off, or avoided. He said Himself, “He who is not with Me is
against Me” (Mt 12:30). There are infinite and eternal consequences at stake,
and there is no middle-ground.
Nowhere in Scripture is this more apparent than here in our
text today. Following the informal interrogation before Annas (the man with the
real religious authority in Jerusalem ),
and the more formal arraignment before Caiaphas (the man who held the post of
high priest), the Jewish authorities bring Jesus to Pontius Pilate at the
Praetorium. This word refers to the headquarters of the Roman government in a
subject province. Pilate, as prefect of Judea, was normally headquartered at Caesarea . During religious festivals, such as Passover
which was going on at this time, the Roman leadership would migrate to Jerusalem to keep a heavy
hand on the surging population of pilgrims at a time of great religious and
nationalistic fervor. While in Jerusalem , the
Praetorium was likely in the Fortress of Antonia, just steps away from the
outer court of the Temple .
It was “early,” the text says. They had convened all night long in the
adjoining palaces of Annas and Caiaphas, and at first light or just before,
they brought Jesus to Pilate. The Romans divided up the night into four “watches.”
The third was called “cockcrow” because of the regularity of the roosters
crowing between 3 and 6 a.m. At six, dawn’s early light began to break the
darkness for the watch which was simply called “early.” This was about the time
that the Jewish officials showed up with Jesus at the Praetorium. This was not
unusual, for many Roman officials in the ancient world customarily started
their workdays before the rising of the sun, and wrapped up official matters by
10 or 11 a.m.
The Jewish authorities viewed this matter as a mere
formality – a hoop through which they had to jump in route to a certain
verdict. It was to be a slam dunk. Drag Jesus before Pilate on the basis of
their trumped up charges against Him, and get Pilate to sign off on the
execution order. Pilate was known to be a harsh and cruel man, and they must
have assumed that the killing of one more Jew would bring him great pleasure.
Perhaps offended by their presumptiveness, paranoid of creating an uprising, or
alarmed by a dream that his wife had the night before about Jesus (recorded in
Mt 27:19), or for some other equally unexpected reason, Pilate here shows a
surprising measure of restraint and unpredictable impartiality. He insists on a
fresh hearing in his presence. In what appears to be an uncharacteristic stand
for justice, Pilate actually entraps himself in the impossibility of being
indifferent to Jesus Christ. He becomes an example to us all that we must
ultimately decide to be for Him or against Him. How do we do that? Pilate
follows the right course, but ultimately falters in the conclusion. However,
his footprints along that course help us come to the place of decision for
ourselves. What shall we do with Jesus?
I. We must consider Jesus for ourselves. (vv28-32)
Do you like Indian food? I love Indian food. Now, if you had
asked me ten years ago, I would have said that I didn’t. That’s because I’d
never had it. I had often heard other people say that they didn’t like Indian
food, so I figured I better not try it. I refused a tray of curry chicken on a
transatlantic flight once, but other than that, the closest I’d ever come to an
Indian meal was watching the dinner scene in Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom. But after being put in a situation where I had no other choice but to eat
Indian food, I realized that all those other people I’d listened to (including
Indiana Jones) had led me astray. I had to make a decision for myself, not rest
on the decisions of others. Of course it really doesn’t matter whether or not
you like Indian food, but it matters a great deal what you decide about Jesus.
And you must decide for yourself.
Deciding for yourself means that you will not be persuaded
by the baseless claims of others. Notice that Pilate went out to the Jewish
authorities and asked, “What accusation do you bring to this man?” Notice their
answer: “If this Man were not an evildoer, we would not have delivered Him to
you.” In what conceivable way does this answer Pilate’s question? They had no
charges to bring against Jesus, and they knew it! They’d bribed a couple of
fellows, according to the other Gospels, to make up some charges, but even
their testimonies could not agree (Mk 14:55-59). They’d built a theological
case against Jesus because He defied their traditions and personally offended
them, but they knew that they didn’t have a leg to stand on when it came to
persuading Pilate. So they tried to dodge the question.
We will find the same thing in the religious rhetoric of our
own day. People speak against Christ and against Christianity with venomous
ire, and expect others to mindlessly follow along. Ask them questions before
you do. What has Jesus done, or not done, to make you despise Him so? In what
way has Jesus failed you? In what way have you definitively disproven His
claims? What historical errors have you personally discovered in the Gospel
accounts of His life and ministry? Most often, though they may become louder
and more animated, they cannot provide actual answers to the questions. Many of
them have themselves been persuaded by the baseless claims of a college
professor they were intimidated by, a friend they admired, or a family member
they respected. They have not considered Jesus for themselves, and they merely
want you to follow them in their own folly. Like the Jewish officials before
Pilate, they have baseless claims that they cannot substantiate. If you would
consider Jesus for yourself, you will not be persuaded by that.
Deciding for yourself also means that you will not be
persuaded by the biased claims of others. The Jewish authorities had a reason
to reject Jesus, just not a good one. He had exposed their hypocrisy and their
sin through His teachings and His encounters with them and cast a shadow on
their reputation, thus threatening their power and influence over the populace.
They could not outreason Him, either with holy Scripture or human logic, so
their only recourse to silence Him was to kill Him. Jesus knew that this was
their intent. He had warned His disciples numerous times in advance that He
would be put to death, even alluding to the manner of His death. He spoke of
being “lifted up,” which could only refer to the Roman torture of crucifixion.
But the Jews could not do this without Pilate, because Roman law deprived
conquered peoples of the power of capital punishment. That is why they say, “We
are not permitted to put anyone to death.”
The hypocrisy of these officials is evident here in the
text: They are so concerned for their ritual purity that they would not even
enter the Praetorium, for entering a Gentile’s residence would defile them. But
they think nothing of killing an innocent man, and violating every underlying
tenet of the very law they claim to uphold to secure their wishes. Not to
mention their hypocritical pandering to Pilate, whom most of them would have
despised anyway. He was one of the most hated men in Judea because of his cruel
treatment of the people and his repeated defilements of their religious
sensitivities and the temple
of Jerusalem
We find the same today, do we not? When people lambast Jesus
Christ or His followers in the public square, is not often the case that the
axe they have to grind relates to His confrontation and condemnation of their
pet sins and their hypocrisy? Jesus said in John 3:19, “Light has come into the
world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were
evil.” Else the case may be that Christ and His sword-like word has cut against
the grain of their treasured beliefs and traditions, and without even
considering the possibility that His words are true, they reject Him. They will
say, for instance, that Jesus could not have performed the miracles recorded in
the Bible because miracles are impossible. Ah, but it is the impossibility of
them that make them miraculous. And if such phenomena actually took place in
history, then they are not so impossible after all. But rather than
investigating the historical authenticity of the reports of Jesus’ mighty
works, they write them off by their preconceived bias that supernatural deeds
are not possible. If you would consider Jesus for yourself, you will not be
persuaded by biased claims.
In Matthew 16, Jesus presented His disciples with two
questions. The first was, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” The
second, and more important one was, “But who do you say that I am?” It ultimately does not matter what others say
about Jesus. Their claims may be baseless or biased, who knows? What matters
infinitely here and now, and will matter eternally when life ends is what you
say about Him for yourself. Each and every human being must consider Christ for
himself or herself. In demanding to hear the evidence of the case presented
before him, Pilate was off to a good start of doing just that. But he began to
stumble when he said, “Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your
law.” He was trying to avoid making a verdict for himself, and when it comes to
Jesus, that is a position that is never afforded anyone.
That brings us to the second factor as we answer the
question, “What shall we do with Jesus?”
II. We must be seekers of truth. (vv33-37)
Did you ever watch the television show “Columbo”? If you
did, you recall that Lieutenant Columbo was a seemingly inept detective who
always got his man in the end. The way he did it was by always asking a lot of
questions. Eventually, he’d wind around to the right questions and get the
answers he was seeking. In academics, a question-and-answer methodology is often
referred to as the Socratic method, named for the philosopher Socrates. In
Socrates’ day, the sophists were philosophers who used persuasive rhetoric to
entertain or impress their hearers into uncritically accepting their views. But
Socrates would engage his hearers in a dialogue based on questions and answers.
Asking the right questions can be a great means of discovering truth, if we
bring those questions to the right source.
Pilate seemed to know that. Unimpressed with the rhetoric of
the Jewish authorities, Pilate brought Jesus inside the Praetorium and began to
ask Him several very important questions. In verse 33, he asks, “Are You the
King of the Jews?” In verse 35, “What have You done?” These are the most
important questions that can be asked about Jesus: Who is He? What did He do?
But Pilate did not take a popular opinion poll on these matters. He did what we
all must do. He brought the questions to Jesus to let Him answer them for
Himself.
You will notice in verse 34 that, before answering Pilate,
Jesus gets at the motivation for the questions: “Are you saying this on your
own initiative, or did others tell you about Me?” The difference is
significant. Jesus never turned away from anyone who was genuinely seeking
truth for themselves. But Jesus also never wasted time or words in engaging in
an endless debate with people who were disinterested in truth, or who merely
wanted to trap Him with His own words. If Pilate is personally enquiring, then
“perhaps Jesus can lead him to better or deeper understanding.”[1]
But, if Pilate is merely parroting what others have said, then Jesus knows that
the deck is stacked against Him already. It is not that Jesus does not already
know the contents of all of our hearts, but in asking the question, He is
forcing Pilate, and all of us, to examine the motive of our inquiry.
Here Pilate tries to bob and weave and maintain his slippery
posture on the fence. He says in verse 35, “I am not a Jew am I? Your own
nation and the chief priests delivered You to me.” Essentially, Pilate is
saying, “Why should I care? I don’t have a dog in this fight.” But this
position is impossible to maintain if we are seeking truth. Truth is not
something that can be studied with disinterest. Truth calls for an active
response. Pilate cannot get off the hook so easily, nor can anyone else. To
continue the metaphor, everyone has a dog in this fight!
When Pilate asks his second question, “What have you done?”,
Jesus begins to answer both of his questions. He says, “My kingdom is not of
this world.” There it is. If He has a kingdom, then He is a king. He never
denies it. When Pilate asks again, “So You are a king?”, Jesus says, “You say
correctly that I am a king.” But Jesus is clear to explain what His kingship
means. He has not come to overthrow Rome or
liberate Judea from its tyranny. That would be
too small a thing for a King whose kingdom is not of this world. He says, “If
My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I
would not be handed over to the Jews.” One of them had tried to take up the
sword, but Jesus rebuked him and supernaturally healed the one whom he struck.
Kings of this world preserve their power by force. Jesus has no need to do
that. His kingdom is not of this world. It is neither established nor defended
by force. His jurisdiction is universal, His authority is anchored in heaven,
and His mission is not to liberate one corrupt nation from another. It is to
liberate the entire human race from the tyranny of Satan and enslavement to
sin.
How does this King accomplish this? He says, “For this I
have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the
truth.” His Kingdom is established, advanced, and defended by the power of His
word. Those who hear His word and believe become citizens of His kingdom, and
are delivered from the powers of evil at work in this world. John will say in
his First Epistle (5:4) that those who are born of God by faith overcome this
world by the victory of Christ. Thus, Jesus says, “Everyone who is of the truth
hears My voice.”
Understand the weightiness of this radical claim. Jesus is
here saying that He was born to be a King, but not of this world; a King of a
wholly other realm that knows no borders or boundaries. And this King claims
that He has come into the world to reveal the truth of God. He claims to be the
complete revelation of who God is, and that apart from Him, there is no truth
to be known about God. In John 14:6, He said that He is the truth. These
radical claims knock everyone off the fence. As C. S. Lewis famously said, the
one thing we must never say about Jesus is that He was merely a great moral
teacher. Lewis said,
A man who was merely a man and said
the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would
either be a lunatic … or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your
choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or
something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit and Him and kill
Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let
us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human
teacher. He has not left that open to us.[2]
And this brings us to the final issue as we answer the
question, “What shall we do with Jesus?”
III. We must follow truth wherever it leads us. (v38)
In that climactic courtroom scene in the movie “A Few Good
Men,” when Tom Cruise exclaims to Jack Nicholson on the stand, “I want the
truth!”, Nicholson boldly retorts, “You can’t handle the truth!” But this isn’t
the movies, this is real life in the real world. If you are going to seek
truth, and you must, then you have to ask yourself if you can handle the truth
and where it leads you.
Truth will lead us to an inevitable decision. Once truth is
discovered, we have to decide to receive it or reject it. We can no longer
remain indifferent. And nowhere is this more vital than in the case of what we
shall do with Jesus. Pilate has asked gone directly to the right source, and he
has asked the right questions, and received the right answers. But still he
tries to sit the fence. He says abruptly, “What is truth?”, and leaves the
room. Carson
says that his question comes “either because he is convinced there is no
answer, or … because he does not want to hear it.”[3]
And in this way, we see in Pilate an almost prophetic image of our contemporary
culture. The worldview of postmodernism that has dominated our society for the
last half-century is built upon the presupposition that all truth is relative,
and that there is no such thing as an absolute truth – truth with a capital “T”
that is true for all men at all times and places. People will say, “That may be
true for you, but it is not for me.” With truth being relative, every person
can decide for himself or herself what is right and what is wrong, and if you
choose to judge my standards by your own, then I can label you with that most
heinous placard: “You are INTOLERANT!” It
is utterly impossible to build our lives on this kind of shifting foundation.
Do you understand that even the claim that “there is no absolute truth,” is
itself an absolute truth claim? The claim that there are no standards of
morality is itself a standard of morality, and the person who tries to thrust
that standard upon another is no different from one who says that, say, the Ten
Commandments are the standard of morality. It is impossible to deny for long in
the real world that there are standards and absolutes. Truth with a capital “T”
is unavoidable and impossible to ignore.
But perhaps, as Carson
suggests, Pilate’s question actually reveals that he is unwilling to hear the
truth. The fact is that we all have an innate knowledge of truth and right and
wrong. If you don’t believe that, consider how you would respond if someone
were to steal something that belongs to you. You would say, “That’s not right!”
The thief may say, “Sure it is. I can do anything I want.” And you may say,
“That’s not true.” And the thief could merely say, “It may not be true for you,
but it is for me.” And you might then say, “That’s not fair!” And immediately
you find yourself caught in a trap of trying to simultaneously affirm and deny
the very same standards. Could it be that we have spent much of our lives
trying to avoid the responsibility that the truth of God brings to bear upon our
souls? The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1, speaks of people who know the truth but
who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. When the truth speaks harsh words to
us about our sin or our unbelief, we have a decision to make: reject our sin
and unbelief, or reject the plain truth. Like Pilate, you can try to dismiss
this notion of truth, but soon you will be hung on your own noose. Dismissing
truth does not make it go away, nor does it exempt us from our accountability
to it. If we are committed to seeking truth, we must follow it all the way to
the inevitable decision to accept it, surrender to it, and conform our lives to
it; or else continue to live in rebellion to it. And if the truth is found in
Jesus Christ, then life, death, heaven and hell are at stake in the decision.
To not decide is to decide, and the decision may well be eternally disastrous.
This, therefore, means that the pursuit of truth will not
only lead us to an inevitable decision, but it may well lead us to an unpopular
position. Pilate had all the information to make the right decision, and he
almost did. He went out on his portico and announced his verdict: “I find no
guilt in Him.” But because Pilate’s power and prestige rested upon maintaining
order in the land, when the people began to cry out against his decree, he
waffled and gave in to the demands of the horde surrounding him. He had
followed the right course, asked the right questions, and arrived at the right
conclusions. But then he cowered under pressure and sent the Son of God to the
Cross.
Friends, you should beware, if you decide to cast your lot
with Jesus, it may prove unpopular with those surrounding you. But, you must
never fear truth. Romans 10:11 says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be
disappointed.” You might be unpopular, things might get uncomfortable, but
ultimately and eternally, you will find satisfaction nowhere else than in the
truth of God embodied in the Person of Jesus Christ. You should know how
Pilate’s story ends. He waffled to safe his own skin at the expense of the life
of Jesus Christ. But within a short time, his determination for
self-preservation led him to order a bloody massacre of a multitude of
Samaritans, resulting in him being removed from his post and recalled to Rome . It was not long
after that the shamefully took his own life. His efforts to preserve his power,
his prestige, and his image destroyed him. His earthly kingdom was threatened
by the eternal Kingdom
of Jesus
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